The Trump administration plans to send Afghan immigrants from the United States to Afghanistan through Pakistan, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press. Immigrant rights groups warn that the deportations could expose people to retaliation by the Taliban, including those who fled after assisting American forces and aid organizations.
The documents indicate that initial flights could leave Louisiana for Pakistan as early as Monday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates detention and processing facilities in Louisiana. Human Rights First, which monitors U.S. deportation flights, separately said Saturday that it had confirmed a flight carrying Afghan immigrants from Louisiana to Pakistan scheduled for Tuesday.
A senior ICE official described the intended route in a sealed filing submitted Friday in federal court in Virginia. The official said an Afghan immigrant had been scheduled for a charter flight from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Pakistan, followed by transportation to Afghanistan. That filing concerns a man who is challenging his deportation and is not in custody. In a separate Oklahoma federal case, prosecutors said in a Monday filing that another Afghan immigrant was scheduled for deportation to Afghanistan the following week.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the AP by email Saturday that ICE would not discuss upcoming deportation operations, citing the safety of personnel and operational security. Pakistan’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to emailed inquiries. Bloomberg first reported the Pakistan deportation plan on Monday, and The New York Times reported Friday that the immigrants would subsequently be sent to Afghanistan.
The administration has sent thousands of immigrants to countries other than their homelands. Such arrangements have sometimes been used when direct returns are difficult because Washington lacks formal relations with a government, including Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities. They have also been used as a deterrent. In many cases, immigration judges have found that returning immigrants to their own countries would endanger their lives. Whether any Afghans selected for these returns have protective orders barring deportation to Afghanistan was not immediately clear.
Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who leads #AfghanEvac, condemned the plan as “absolutely unconscionable.” Savitri Arvey, policy director for refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First, also criticized the proposed transfers. She pointed to earlier flights her organization had tracked involving Iranian Christian converts and political dissidents returned through Qatar and Kuwait, and a Russian political dissident sent home through Egypt.
Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut criticized the plans on X after Friday’s Times report. Shaheen said hundreds of Afghans, including women, children and people who supported U.S. forces, could face return to Taliban control. Blumenthal said deporting Afghan allies to possible torture or death would betray America’s promise to them.
The planned removals follow a September decision to extend operations at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar for nine months. The camp, which had been scheduled to close September 30, houses more than 1,000 Afghans who helped the American war effort or are relatives of U.S. service members.
At the start of his second term, Trump suspended his predecessor’s Afghan resettlement program amid broader immigration restrictions. His changes to refugee admissions, including a focus on white South Africans, left thousands of people stranded worldwide, including at the Qatar base, after years of vetting for resettlement in the United States.
